One year ago, Ricki-Lee Coulter experienced what she describes as a “super close call”, a frightening accident that could have cost her her vision.
In a cautionary Facebook post, the singer describes sitting on a lounge, a champagne bottle clamped between her knees, the cork cage removed. Her sister runs over, and as she leans forward to embrace her…
“The force of the cork hitting my eye ball was like no other pain I have ever felt,” the 31-year-old wrote on Facebook. “It felt like a train had slammed into my eyeball at full speed or like I was punched in the face by Mike Tyson. It was excruciating.
“I never knew this… but corks can fly out of bottles at speeds up to 80km/h! It’s no joke.”
At first, Coulter writes, everything was black. Then slowly a pinhole of vision returned and expanded, but the world around her was a painful blur.

After a trip to the emergency room, specialists diagnosed her with hyphema and commotio retinae, that is pooling of blood inside the chamber of the eye and bruising on the back of the eye.
Top Comments
Yep - as an optometrist we were always taught the two things that can damage the eye the most from trauma is a champagne cork and a squash ball - as they both move fast and are smaller than the bones around your eye so they can hit your eye directly. Very lucky outcome. Point champagne bottles away from all and wear goggles to play squash!!